Thursday

Kaylee has short days this week because of Parent Teacher Conferences. When I picked her up, we went to Applebees for lunch with Ken, Steve & Nathan. Then we had the airplane shuffle. Steve, Kaylee, Nathan & I went in the 172RG over to Muncie. Steve and Kaylee went on to Sheridan. I took the Super Decathlon back to Glenndale, and Nathan followed me in the Baron. He slowed way down and followed me in a sort of loose formation-the plane sure looks good from the air. I wallowed my takeoff out of Muncie and floated my landing at Glenndale, but while not beautiful, it was at least functional. lol Nathan followed me into Glenndale and picked me up, and we headed to Huntington to check on a T-6. On our way into Huntington, we looked down and noticed an airplane on the runway, right as Unicom came on and said "We've had a plane land gear up on the runway. The runway is closed. However, the taxiway is available for landing--if you choose. It is 30' wide and 5000' long." We kind of looked around and figured...why not. Came in on the taxiway, which is actually wider than some of the runways we've landed on before.

I was feeling a little sorry for the pilot who forgot to put his gear down until I heard the rest of the story. He was one of "those" guys. He'd pulled a Stupid Pilot Stunt not too long ago and got away with it. Then today he landed gear up. When he got out of the plane, he was cursing and screaming, and apparently ranting that the guy in the plane behind him (who hadn't even turned final yet) was "rushing" him and that's why he forgot his gear. *Red Flashing Light* and *Sound of Toilet Flushing*. No no no no no. You goof up, say admit you goofed up and you move on. He lost any hint of slack he'd have gotten from anybody there after the incident when he started the "it's not my fault" games. It IS your fault buddy. If you're that rushed, go around. But don't blame someone else because you bellied one in.

Argh.

When we got ready to leave Huntington, there were a lot of cars on the runway. As we lined up for the taxiway to take off, Nathan called in and asked if that was the FAA out there, and got the "yes it is" response. Ah well, *shrug*, we took off anyway.

Headed back to Kokomo, put stuff away, I wiped down the Baron and RG for bugs, and then headed to the car wash, filled up with gas, and stopped at Steak & Shake for dinner. Kaylee played with Nicole for awhile when we got home, and then it was bed time for her and email time for me. And Thursday is about over!